Behind the Scenes at the 5 p.m. UGA News

From Monday to Thursday at 5 p.m., UGA students in the Grady College broadcast NewSource15, an evening news show carried by both WUGA-TV and Charter Cable Channel 15. The half-hour show covers mainly what’s happening in Athens, and students handle all the work with faculty members looking over their shoulders.

Grady College students have been doing this for nearly 20 years, but this fall there is something different: viewers can sit in on the behind-the- scenes analysis of what went right and wrong on the air. Those who watch can interact with those who create.

A post-mortem of the show has always taken place, but viewers weren’t invited. It was meant purely as a learning experience for students. Professional instructors provide feedback about "how well they did, what they did right, what they could do better," said Michael Castengera, a Grady College telecommunications professor and the senior producer of NewSource,.

As soon as the newscast ends at 5:30 p.m., all student staff members, student volunteers and Castengera head downstairs from the control and news rooms to the live studio. Everyone crowds around the table and the student producer, student director, student managers and other staff take turns commenting on the show’s good and bad moments.

Castengera makes suggestions about what could have been done differently.

Televising this self-examination is a big step toward transparency in journalism, according to David Hazinski, who founded NewSource. He heads the digital broadcast journalism program at Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

"One of the things we do wrong in journalism is we never tell people how we make decisions,” said Hazinski. “I think it is a very cool thing to show everybody kind of behind-the-scenes things."

Broadcasting the discussion helps the audience understand the dynamics involved in creating a show and why decisions were made certain ways, said James Brierton, the senior production manager for NewSource. 

Viewers can see "this person is actually a human,” he said. “They are not a rock star anchor. They have to make decisions."

Most of the students who work on NewSource aspire to professional careers in broadcast or digital news.

In NewSource, students run the control room and practice every aspect of newscast production, including writing, reporting, and anchoring the news.

Most of the volunteers plan to apply to the Grady College. They perform technical functions such as prompting on-air talent, operating cameras, recording and playing back audio.

 Students say that the NewSource experience is great for building a resume and interviewing for jobs. Besides learning how to work cameras and deal with deadlines, “I actually met my deadlines,” Brierton said.